


Lying Beneath the Dirt

by Merely_Specters



Category: Smallville
Genre: Angst, Character Study, Episode: s07e16 Descent, Ficlet, Gen, Missing Scene, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:14:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27002584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merely_Specters/pseuds/Merely_Specters
Summary: Clark visits Lionel's grave only once.
Kudos: 1





	Lying Beneath the Dirt

**Author's Note:**

> Originally written in 2019.

After Lex walked away, Clark examined Lionel’s grave.

Clark stood above Lionel Luthor’s corpse, looking down at the coffin. He bowed his head to take a closer look. It was, without a doubt, a quality coffin; the hardwood glistened under the soft light. But Clark knew that Lionel would have wanted much more. Lionel would have created a _monument_ to his own name. ( _He might have buried himself alongside his wife._ )

Clark couldn’t help but ponder. Lex spit at his father even in death, placing him in a cheap cemetery alongside the common folk that he avoided. Lionel would have been outraged. But that isn’t to say that Clark would have done any different than Lex. By all means, Clark probably would have put Lionel in a far cheaper cemetery, maybe even one in Smallville. It felt good for such a high and mighty man to be brought low, and, for once, Lionel’s arrogance could do nothing but rot bones.

But Lionel Luthor was dead now. He had been laid below those he paraded above.

Clark took a handful of dirt and spread it over the coffin.

Clark didn’t leave. Not yet.

Clark stood by Lionel’s grave longer than he had intended. For once in his life, there was nothing that he had to run off to. He currently had no world to save, nor any actions that he could take, so he simply stood on the uneven turf.

He didn’t even move to see the words on the grave. They were probably lies, anyways.

“You may not have been a father when it counted,” he said to the cold, polished cover, “but you protected me. Thank you.” And his thanks was genuine: Lionel was not a good man, that much was certain, but he tried to mend his life in the end. At a funeral, that was what counted.

Several hours later, Clark left.

He never returned.


End file.
